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Life Insurance newsletter - issue 11

The FSA has published issue 11 of its Life Insurance newsletter. In this issue of the newsletter the FSA briefly reports on:

Progress made on the Treating Customers Fairly initiative.

Insurance Sector Briefing: Quality of post-sale communications in the life sector and availability of ongoing advice to with-profits policyholders.

Update on the Retail Distribution Review.

Conduct of Business issues - COB 6.12.48 (1) to (3).

Contract terms: statutory rights.

The creation of three new insurance firms - ACE Europe Life Limited, MetLife Assurance Limited and Rothesay Life Limited.

In the newsletter, the FSA states that it has reviewed statutory rights clauses in insurance policies and has decided that clauses which refer to statutory rights without giving any more information are potentially unfair. The FSA recommends that when firms update the terms and conditions of their insurance policies they should consider including wording which explains to consumers how they can find out more information about their statutory rights.

The terms and conditions of insurance policies should be set out in plain and intelligible language or they risk being unfair under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. The FSA also reminds firms to make regular assessments of whether their consumer terms and conditions comply with the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contract Regulations and to consider the undertakings published by the FSA, the OFT and other relevant bodies.